Posted
by
timothy
on Thursday March 14, 2013 @09:09AM
from the ok-but-not-while-driving dept.

Hesh writes "With the impending arrival of the first batch of Oculus Rift VR headsets to developers, Rod Furlan put up a very detailed guide on how to build your very own headset with off-the-shelf parts and a few hours of spare time based off of the original design of the headset from the forums where it all started. This is a very exciting time for VR, and DIY headsets will allow everyone to try out new tricks and form factors while finally being able to test with a whole new world of compatible software that is about to be released very soon."

In every VR headset I've tried the eyes must stay aimed mostly forward with very limited range of movement which is very unnatural and uncomfortable. They also use fisheye lenses with quickly deliver a blistering migraine.

It is great to see Rod and other folks exploring and discussing their work in building cheap and effective virtual reality displays and peripherals.

I hope that there won’t be too much criticism on his build concerning price. Please note that he’s including a low cost, but in comparison, a moderately priced tracker. From the build writeup, you can see how you could replace it with something else. All in all, it’s a pretty cheap device to make. Consider the doors it opens. An open approach and open discussion of such builds is valuable and appreciated.

Some other thoughts: the Rift was spun out of some Open Source designs that we had Palmer Luckey work while he was here at the ICT Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. After witnessing the Kickstarter and seeing the implications it’s already had worldwide, I think that it and these DIY head mounted displays are very important to advancing the VR industry and community. I’m happy to see all the interest and I’d like to see a broad range of hobbyists, scientists, engineers, and companies experimenting and improving on these designs, and discovering how to build the next generation of immersive experiences.

Like Rod, I and my colleagues at Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/ [usc.edu] are also firm believers in sharing our work, Open Sourcing what we can, and helping anyone who wants to play with these technologies. We’ve been improving and packaging our various Open Source reference designs for low cost head mounted displays and immersive viewers. We’ll be discussing these items at the 2013 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference in Orlando, FL next week.

To help out the community and add to the conversation, we’ll be open sourcing a lot of data in the next few days. We’ll share our parts lists, 3D printer STL files, and various software packages that will help you create your own immersive experiences. We do have some foldable foam-core viewer designs, but we have been working on 3D printed viewers as well. The prices on 3D printers are coming down and ordering a print from an online 3D print company is fairly easy. We have a Stereo Unity package that lets developers easily create and edit Stereo Project Scenes in Unity and some nice Distortion Correction software for Unity that counters the fisheye distortion that you see with low cost magnifier lenses.